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Romanesque Period: Art and Architecture

ROMANESQUE PERIOD:

Art and Architecture during the Age of Pilgrimages

Ca. 1050 – 1200

  1. INTRODUCTION
  1. Romanesque = Roman-like
  2. Use of barrel and groin vaults in churches reminded art historians of Roman architecture
  3. Economic conditions
  4. Trade increased and towns grew as a result
  5. Greater wealth
  6. Breakdown of strict feudal system.
  7. Towns were granted charters that exempted them from feudal obligations because they could generate wealth
  8. Usually located on rivers and were centers of commerce
  9. Age of Pilgrimages
  1. Europeans expected the world to end in 1000 CE and the Second Coming of Christ to judge humanity.
  2. Rise in religious devotion
  3. Europeans went on pilgrimages to prove their devotion to god
  4. Europeans visited pilgrimage churches that had significant RELICS
  5. Prosperity triggered era of ecclesiastical (pertaining to church, clergy or spiritual) building.
  6. Towns and churches got a lot of income from pilgrims (religious tourism?) visiting relics and religious sites.
  7. Need inspirational architecture to match religious inspiration.
  8. Timber roofs were a fire hazard
  9. Stone vaulted roofs matched majesty of God and relics
  10. Improved acoustics
  1. Age of Crusades
  2. 1095 Pope Urban II urged Christians to take back the Holy Land from the infidels (Moslems)
  3. Between 1095 and 1190 European Christians launched 3 Crusades (taking of the cross): Mass armed pilgrimages
  4. Mostly feudal French and Papacy joined in creating Crusades
  5. Crusaders were successful in capturing Jerusalem for a number of years but were eventually driven out by Muslims.
  6. As a result of Crusades European towns were enriched and started to create a power center to rival the feudal system.
  1. Relics and Reliquaries
  1. Relic
  • A personal memorial of a holy person
  • Often relics were parts of a person such as hair, bones, and fingernails
  1. Reliquary
  • Container for a relic which would be viewed by the pilgrim
  1. Top Pilgrimage Sites
  1. Jerusalem
  • Site of the Last Supper
  • Site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection
  • Church of the Holy Sepulcher
  1. Rome
  • Papal residence
  • Old Saint Peter’s basilica
  1. Canterbury
  • Canterbury Cathedral
  • St. Thomas Becket’s tomb
  1. Santiago de Compostela in Spain
  • Usually the last stop on the pilgrimage route
  • Contained the relics of Saint James
  • James was beheaded by Herod in 42 CE becoming the first of Christ’s apostles to be martyred
  • James’ remains were believed to have been miraculously relocated from Judea to Spain
  1. Overview: Four Different Regions of Romanesque Art
  1. France and Northern Spain
  2. Churches built on or along pilgrimage routes
  3. Used Roman-like building technique of barrel and groin vaults BUT used STONE INSTEAD OF CONCRETE
  4. Revival of monumental stone relief sculpture
  5. Patrons were monks
  6. Bernard of Clairvaux condemned figurative art in churches and religious books
  1. Holy Roman Empire: Germany and Northern Italy
  2. Salanian Dynasty ruled what was left of HRE
  3. Structurally innovative churches: Earliest use of groin vaults in naves
  4. Excelled in metalwork
  1. Italy South of Milan
  2. Evident regional diversity: Roman and Early Christian influence was strongest
  3. Wooden roofs of churches.
  4. Exteriors paneled in different colored marbles
  5. Campaniles (bell towers) were usually freestanding
  6. Baptisteries were freestanding central-plan buildings facing cathedral (cathedral = church that is seat of bishop)
  1. Normandy and England
  2. Vikings converted to Christianity in 10th C. and settled in northern coast of France.
  3. In 1066 the Norman King, William the Conqueror, conquered England.
  4. Bayeux Tapestry chronicles war: unique example of contemporaneous historical narrative: Trajan’s column
  5. New features to church design
  6. Rib groin vaults over three-story nave elevation (arcade, tribune, clerestory)
  7. Quadrant arches in tribune to buttress vaults (evolved into flying buttresses of Gothic style).
  1. Romanesque Architecture

1: France and Northern Spain

  1. Saint Etienne, Vignory, France, 1050 – 1057
  2. Second story not a tribune (gallery), just a screen with alternating columns and piers.
  3. One of earliest examples of radiating chapels around ambulatory.
  4. Some Romanesque churches were still built with timber roofs.
  5. Early example of using stone sculpture on the exterior of the church. THIS BECAME ONE OF ROMANESQUES DEFINING TRADEMANRKS.
  1. Sainte-Foy at Conques, France; completed ca. 1120: A Case Study of a RomanesquePilgrimageChurch
  1. Overview
  • CRUCIFORM (shape of a cross) floor plan
  • Long nave – central hall
  • Transept – cross arm placed perpendicular to the nave
  • CHOIR – special section for clergy to sit, located just past the transept
  • Large APSE – semicircular area projecting from the nave
  • The church has a stone roof
  • Early Christian and Early Medieval basilicas had wooden roofs
  • New stone roofs lessened the risk of fire and improved the acoustics
  • The roof is supported by BARREL VAULTS
  • BELFRY – a bell tower, rises above the roof at a point called the CROSSING – where the nave and the transept intersect, BELFRY was added during the Gothic period
  • No clerestory in Ste.-Foy. Light only from aisle windows (and octagonal tower on belfry-not part of original plan).
  • Small windows and a heavy appearance, stoutly built
  1. Floor plan
  • Had to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims without interrupting the daily services of the clergy
  • AMBULATORY
  • Semicircular passageway around the apse
  • Permitted lay people (non-clergy) visiting the church to circulate freely while leaving the monks undisturbed access to the main altar in the choir
  • Ambulatory contained RADIATING CHAPEL – small semicircular niches in which the RELIQUARIES were displayed
  1. Saint Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1070 - 1120 – Case Study #2 in a Romanesque pilgrimage church
  1. Who is Saint Sernin?
  • Saint Saturninus – first bishop of Toulouse. Saint Sernin (French) was martyred in the middle of the 3rd century.
  • Aerial view of Saint-Sernin (Gardner’s 17-4)
  • How long is Saint-Sernin’s nave – 380 feet long, 105 feet wide
  • Huge to accommodate crowds of pilgrims.
  1. A fine example of a Romanesque pilgrimage church
  • Cruciform shape
  • Stone roof
  • Large choir and apse
  • Ambulatory with 5 radiating chapels
  • Barrel vaulted nave
  1. Geometrically precise modular plan

Take a careful look at the plan of Saint-Sernin in Gardner’s (17-5)

  • The CROSSING SQUARE served as the basic module or mathematical unit for the entire church.
  • Each naveBAY – a three-dimensional module of the church is half the size of the crossing square
  • Each side aisleBAY – is one fourth the size of the crossing square. The side aisles contain groin vaults
  • Stone barrel vaults, different from Saint Etienne’s (Vignory) timber roof.
  1. Inside Saint-Sernin
  • Nave contains BARREL VAULT with TRANVERSE ARCHES – round arches which separate the nave bays
  • A GALLERY or TRIBUNE over the inner aisle flanking the nave (Look halfway up the nave wall)
  • A NAVE ARCADE – a line of arches that separates the nave from the side aisles
  • The nave arcade also contains COMPOUND PIERS – piers (rectangular supports) that have engaged columns or pilasters (like an engaged column but with a rectangular cross-section) attached to them. The engaged columns of the compound piers extend all the way up to the springing (the lowest stone of the arch) and continue to the TRANSVERSE ARCHES
  1. Model of the third abbey church of Cluny, France – “Cluny III”
  2. Home of Cluniac monks who followed the Benedictine Rule
  3. Largest church in Europe until the construction of New Saint Peter’s
  4. 500 foot long nave and 100 feet high (50 per cent greater than the dimensions of Saint-Sernin)
  5. Visions of grandeur. Need a place worthy enough for angels to live there.
  6. Largely destroyed today – reconstructed on paper and in models

2: Holy Roman Empire: Germany and Northern Italy

  1. Interior of Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany, begun 1030, nave vaults ca. 1082 – 1105
  2. Originally a timber roof
  3. One of the first groin vaulted naves
  4. Alternate support system in nave continues to vaults
  5. Striving for height
  1. Saint’ Ambrogio, Milan, Italy, Late 11th to early 12th century
  2. Charlemagne conquered Lombardy (now in Italy) so it was part of HRE.
  3. German and Italian cross-fertilization
  4. Prototype for Speyer Cathedral?
  5. Has atrium, from Early Christian tradition
  6. Two story narthex pierced by arches on both levels
  7. Two bell towers, shorter from 10th C., taller from 12th C.
  8. East end has octagonal tower reminiscent of Ottonian crossing towers (dome of heaven)
  9. Nave and two aisles but no transept, no clerestory
  10. Ribs on groin vaults (vs. transverse vaults)
  11. Not aspiring to soaring heights
  12. Even though in the HRE, ITALIAN ARCHITECTS DID NOT ACCEPT VERTICALITY OF NORTHERN ARCHITECTURE: ROOTS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN STYLE

3: Italy

  1. The Romanesque Cathedral Complex at Pisa
  1. Introduction
  1. Fleet from the Republic of Pisa defeats a Muslim naval force in 1062.
  2. To celebrate their victory, the Pisans used the booty taken from the enemy boats to start a fund for a new cathedral.
  3. In 1153, Pisa celebrated another victory at sea by starting construction of a baptistery opposite the cathedral façade.
  1. The Cathedral Complex
  1. The Baptistery
  • Place where infants and converts were initiated into the Christian community.
  • Look closely at the exterior design of the Baptistery. Is it all the same style?
  • The lower portion of the building has rounded arches, small windows with rounded arch shape, and engaged columns. It is ROMANESQUE.
  • The upper portion contains tracery (decorative stonework) and pinnacles (pointed stone decorations). The upper portion is GOTHIC.
  1. The Cathedral
  • Very large with a nave and four side aisles.
  • Note the transept.
  • Also note how the exterior arcaded galleries match the LeaningTower of Pisa.
  1. The LeaningTower
  • The “LeaningTower” is actually a CAMPANILE or bell tower.
  • The “LeaningTower” is 180 feet high and contains 294 steps.
  • Unfortunately, the tower was built on a sandy base of water soaked clay.
  • The Tower at one point leaned 21 feet from its true perpendicular!
  • Extraordinary measures have been taken to prevent the tower from falling. For example, tons of lead have been poured around the base to stabilize the area.
  • In 1990, the government suspended visits inside the tower. But visits have resumed.
  • What famous scientist dropped weights from the top of the tower? ______
  1. Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, dedicated in 1059
  2. Place where infants and converts were initiated into the Christian community. Important gathering place for religious and civic functions and very important structures in community.
  3. Simple and serene, recalls ancient Roman architecture
  4. Diocletian’s mausoleum
  5. Santa Costanza
  6. San Vitale
  7. Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel
  8. Tuscan Romanesque marble patterns descendents of Roman wall designs. (First Style)
  1. Interior of San Miniatio al Monte, Florence, Italy, ca. 1062 – 1090
  2. Timber Roof
  3. Diaphragm Arch: breaks nave into sections and provides a fire break.
  1. Normandy and England
  1. Introduction
  1. Vikings Christianized in 10th C.
  2. Active warriors and able craftsmen and administrators in N. Europe and Sicily (see William II, page 332)
  1. Saint-Etienne, Caen, France, begun 1067
  2. Begun by William the Conqueror and was buried there as well.
  3. Rooted in Carolingian and Ottonian westworks
  4. Tripartite conception throughout: Top of spires was a gothic addition.
  5. Original designed for wood roof: Alternating support structure was repurposed to support stone groin vaults – ribbed transverse and diagonal vaults.
  6. Sexpartite vault height allowed for a clerestory
  7. Light, airy quality
  1. Durham Cathedral, Durham, England, begun ca. 1093
  2. Designed as a vaulted church from beginning
  3. Seven-part nave vault covers two bays
  4. Rational structure enforced by very different alternating support structures (columns vs. compound piers).
  5. Long, slender proportions
  6. Earliest known ribbed groin vault over a three-story space
  7. Rib vaults slightly arched (future Gothic featue)
  8. Tribune had quadrant arches to buttress the nave (future Gothic feature).
  1. ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE
  1. Introduction
  1. A HALLMARK OF THE ROMANESQUE PERIOD WAS THE RETURN OF SCULPTURE ON THE EXTERIOR OF THE BUILDING, WHICH HAD NOT BEEN SEEN SINCE ROMAN TIMES. MOST OF THE SCULPTURE WAS IN LOW OR HIGH RELIEF, NOT IN THE ROUND.
  • The exterior decor of Early Christian and early Medieval (Carolingian and Ottonian) churches was relatively simple. See the westwork of a Carolingian basilica in Gardner’s Fig. 16-20.
  1. Large sculptures in the round (ex. Archbishop Gero’s Crucifix – G-441) were rare; churches did not want to have anything that could perceived as idols. Small sculptures and reliquaries were acceptable.
  • Virgin and Child (Morgan Madonna), Auvergne, France, second half of 12th century – IN THE MET!
  • Note the strict frontality of presentation. It is similar to Byzantine Theotokos and Child icons.
  • These sculptures were common in the Middle Ages. Jesus held a bible in his left hand and blessed people with his right (both hands are missing).
  • Jesus “is the embodiment of the divine wisdom contained in the Holy Scriptures. His mother, seated on a wooden chair, is in turn the Throne of Wisdom because her lap is the Christ Child’s throne.”
  • ETS strikes again ! – Identify the art-historical period of the sculpture. What key characteristics support your placement of the work in the period you have identified?
  • Mother and Child sit rigidly upright
  • Strictly frontal
  • Emotionless
  • Less remote than Byzantine art because of
  • Intimate scale
  • Gesture of benediction (blessing)
  • Original bright coloring of garments
  • Soft modeling of Virgin’s face
  • Head reliquary of Saint Alexander from Stavelot Abbey, Belgium, 1145.
  • Commissioned by a Bishop Wibald for private devotional purposes
  • Stylistic diversity of Romanesque art
  • Idealized portrait of Pope Alexander II (compare to images of Augustus or Constantine
  • Box, which is supported by four bronze dragons (popular in Romanesque decoration), contains his relics
  • Beaten (repousse) silver with bronze gilding
  • Typical use of costly materials
  • Byzantine style enamels on box
  • Rainer of Huy, baptismal font, baptism of Christ, 1118, Bronze, Liege, Belgium
  • Oxen equated with 12 apostles
  • Classical spirit and style
  • Softly rounded figures
  • Idealized faces and bodies
  • Clinging drapery (to show bodies)
  • ¾ view from rear
  • Some figures, including Christ, are naked
  • Nudity rare in Medieval art: usually just Adam and Eve and they are usually shown trying to cover their nakedness. Opposite of the high value classicism places on the beauty of the human body. Medieval mind believes the body is a temporary container for the soul that opens the gate for sin. Body mortification.
  1. Exterior Sculpture
  1. Back to exterior stone sculpture - Why did exterior stone sculpture reemerge during the 11th century?
  1. During the Early Middle Ages, most of the people who went to churches were literate members of the clergy.
  1. During the Romanesque period, sculpture was a DIDACTIC (teaching) tool used to teach the illiterate masses important biblical stories.
  1. Priests and patrons wanted to beautify the house of the Lord with stone sculptures of biblical characters, Christian symbols, and other exterior ornamentation.
  1. Stone was the most durable medium for these images
  1. Stone indicates greater wealth of the times
  1. Beautify the house of God - create “a paradise of pleasures.”
  • Bernardus Gelduinus, Christ in Majesty, relief in ambulatory of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1096
  • The sculptor signed his work BERNARDUS GISLEBERTUS
  • Unusual for artists to sign their work in this age
  • Possibly to advertise his work
  • Possibly as a request to his spectators to pray for his salvation on Judgment Day
  • Christ blessing and book open to “peace be unto you.”
  • Christ in mandorla
  • Surrounded by signs of 4 evangelists (tetramorphs)
  • Style of Carolingian or Ottonian book cover
  • WILIGELMO’S frieze on the west façade of Modena Cathedral, Italy
  • This work is part of a LINTEL
  • It resembles Late Roman and Early Christian sarcophagi with its architectural backdrop
  • One of the first fully developed narrative friezes in Romanesque art
  • God shown in a mandorla
  • God creating Adam, God creating Eve, the Original Sin
  • WILIGELMO signed it with the inscription “Among sculptors, your work shines forth, Wiligelmo.”
  • Benedetto Antelami, King David, statue in a niche on the west façade of Fidenza Cathedral, Fidenza, Italy, ca. 1180 – 1190, life-size
  • Monumental
  • Rooted in Greco-Roman art
  • Displays scroll (of psalms?)
  • Looks confined in niche
  • Does not have weight shift of Greco-Roman figuration
  • But does look off, not frontal
  • Freestanding figures in niches taken up in early Renaissance
  1. The PORTAL was a major location for sculpture which was part of:
  • Tympanum
  • Lintel
  • Trumeau
  • Jambs
  • Archivolts
  1. Portal – doorway to a church including the architectural composition surrounding it
  2. Importance – it made the first impression on visitors to the church
  1. Parts of a Romanesque portal (17-10)
  • TYMPANUM – prominent semicircular lunette above the doorway, comparable to the PEDIMENT of a Greco-Roman temple
  • VOUSSOIRS – wedge-shaped blocks that together form the ARCHIVOLTS
  • ARCHIVOLTS – bands of arches over the tympanum
  • LINTEL – the horizontal beam above the doorway
  • TRUMEAU – the center post supporting the lintel in the middle of the doorway
  • JAMBS – the side posts of the doorway
  • Lions and Old Testament prophet (Jeremiah or Isaiah?) trumeau of the south portal of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, ca. 1115 – 1130
  • Displays scroll recounting his vision
  • Animated figure (diagonal lines) held in check by static constraints of architecture creates dynamic tension
  • On truneau below Last Judgment: Usual to pair Old Testament figures with (under) New Testament figures.
  • Six roaring interlaced lions on the outer face of the trumeau – lions were symbolic protectors
  1. Controversy from Bernard of Clairvaux, leading Romanesque period theologian: Grandiose architecture and grotesque relief sculpture are OK for the masses. But monks don’t need grotesque reliefs while contemplating God. They are a distraction. Why do you think he felt this way?
  2. Interior of the abbey church of Notre-Dame, Fontenay, France, 1139 – 1147
  3. Cistercian order of monks were great builders but made their buildings devoid of ornament: capitals plain; single story nave with no clerestory
  4. Austerity reflects rejection of worldly extravagance: emphasized labor, poverty, and prayer.

The Last Judgment was a popular theme for tympanum relief sculptures. Why?